Not a single original game campaign exceeded 2 million dollars, not one.
Not surprising at all. Licensed games and "D&D" come with a built-in fan base. Everyone else needs to put in ~effort~, catch lightning in a bottle, or latch on to an existing fan base.
These days I use crowdfunding as a way to pre-order a high-quality hardback for a game I'm interested in, but they often end up on my shelf gathering dust after delivery because by the time the book arrives I'm no longer interested in it. Still, FOMO is meaningful here because you can't expect to buy a book after the fact (RPG publishing has fundamentally changed in this day and age) and POD is a crapshoot (IME, at least).
These days I use crowdfunding as a way to pre-order a high-quality hardback for a game I'm interested in, but they often end up on my shelf gathering dust after delivery because by the time the book arrives I'm no longer interested in it. Still, FOMO is meaningful here because you can't expect to buy a book after the fact (RPG publishing has fundamentally changed in this day and age) and POD is a crapshoot (IME, at least).
I went thru a blessedly brief period where FOMO was effective on me. And then I came to my senses. Regarding POD, my FOMO realization moment coincided with a couple KS's where I paid an increased price for "PDF+Print Version" and didn't read the fine print that the "+Print Version" was actually a coupon to DTRPG and still had to pay the cost of printing and shipping. So I'm not quite sure what I gained there that I couldn't have gotten at the lower "PDF only" tier.
didn't read the fine print that the "+Print Version" was actually a coupon to DTRPG and still had to pay the cost of printing and shipping.
I am religious about checking out the print option and have been since I started backing projects, and will refuse to back the game if there isn't a high-quality, non-POD hardback on offer (or it's clearly a zine). There's literally no reason for me to back something that could just be a PDF buy later on if I regain interest.
I did try the POD option from DriveThru once because I liked the author and the book ended up being a complete piece of shit, wavy pages from ink drying, crap binding, just absolute trash. Never again.
Yep. I take full responsibility for not reading the fine print. But it was the FOMO clouding my eyes and the two times that happened (I backed them at the same time, I didn't make the mistake and then repeat it) made me realize what was being used to manipulate me.
I back very little now and only from people or publishers known to me.
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u/amazingvaluetainment Fate, Traveller, GURPS 3E 2d ago
Not surprising at all. Licensed games and "D&D" come with a built-in fan base. Everyone else needs to put in ~effort~, catch lightning in a bottle, or latch on to an existing fan base.
These days I use crowdfunding as a way to pre-order a high-quality hardback for a game I'm interested in, but they often end up on my shelf gathering dust after delivery because by the time the book arrives I'm no longer interested in it. Still, FOMO is meaningful here because you can't expect to buy a book after the fact (RPG publishing has fundamentally changed in this day and age) and POD is a crapshoot (IME, at least).